


Defense

by Dedicate Kiwicrocus (cranky__crocus)



Series: SMACKDOWN '11 R2, R3, Final - CIRCLECEST [33]
Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen, Goldenlake, smackdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-11
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-20 07:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/210388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranky__crocus/pseuds/Dedicate%20Kiwicrocus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sandry dropped the sword.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SMACKDOWN at Goldenlake: fiefgoldenlake.proboards.com
> 
> Just some silly stories about what Sandry and Tris' weapons would be (since Briar had his knives and Daja her staff).

            Sandry dropped the sword. “It’s no use! I wasn’t meant to battle with hard things. Cloth is it.”

            “It wouldn’t be admitting defeat,” Briar acknowledged, “but _you_ were the one who wanted to learn.”

            Tris lifted the sword and weighed it in her hands. “I don’t mean any offence— _really_ —but this seems a bit heavy for Sandry.” When she felt the metal calling for Daja, she released it.

            Daja caught it in one hand. “I agree. Sandry, could you be pleased with something else?”

            Sandry’s foot stomped; she wasn’t used to defeat. “Like what?”

            Briar flashed a grin as he reached into his clothing. When his hands reappeared, metal glinted within their grasp. “Like…knives?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...It’s more than history: it’s a first line of defence."

Sandry swallowed hard against her dry throat. She dropped the knives and held up her hands. “Break! My mouth is a desert.”

            Briar hurried to retrieve his water pouch from his workshop. He brought it out to the garden and handed it to Sandry, who drank deeply before passing it to Daja.

            Tris eyed the sword Sandry had previously rejected. When she thought no one was looking, Tris reached for it and held it close. She thought she heard the wind singing past the metal of it.

            Daja stepped up beside her. “It feels nice, doesn’t it?”

            Tris gazed at her sidelong. “What does?”

            “The feel of a weapon that doesn’t come from your hair or body,” Daja clarified. She grinned to prove she meant no harm in the statement. “Traders feel the same about carrying a staff. It’s more than history: it’s a first line of defence.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Will this be bad?” she questioned in a whisper.

Sandry’s wooden knife flew through the air, out of her grasp and toward the flare of Briar’s power.

            “That’s cheating!” she accused, pointing a finger at him. “How am I supposed to learn to fight if you pull stunts like that?”

            “I didn’t think it right, letting you keep on that way,” Briar stated as he twirled the practice knife over his palm. “I don’t intend to be mean, Sandry, but you’re abysmal with knives.”

            “I’ve only just started!”

            Briar shook his head. “There’s a knack some people have for it—a calling. It’s not something you can learn. If you haven’t got it with knives, you’ll be bested when you try. You need something else.”

            “Something else like _what?_ ” Sandry challenged, looking between Briar, Tris and Daja. Tris shrugged: what did she know of the sort? Sandry locked in on Daja. “A staff?”

            Daja threw Sandry her own staff—a testament to trust—and grinned. “Give it a try.”

            Briar handed Daja a whittled stick-staff for practice and stood back to watch. Tris joined him.

            “Will this be bad?” she questioned in a whisper.

            He glanced between the two circling each other. “Judging by her handle on it, yes.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You like the sword?”

Daja’s staff arched through the air, spinning and descending. Sandry watched on with a frown; it had just left her hands. Daja caught it in her free hand. She carried two staffs, now.

            “That wasn’t terrible for a first,” she told Sandry as she passed the woman the practice staff instead of her own. “Come here.”

            Sandry stood side-by-side with Daja, their heads angled together as they murmured. Daja instructed her on the proper hold for a staff.

            Tris and Briar watched on. Briar gazed down at the sword Tris had picked up.

            “You like the sword?” He pointed at the metal practice weapon.

            Tris gazed down at it, then brought it up before her face. She touched along its broad side with one finger. She could feel it channelling the wind, splitting and re-joining on either side of the blade. “I do.”

            Briar saw the passion in his sister’s eyes and grinned: he could see a life-long bond in the making. “You look good with it.”

            Tris smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’m going to stop you there, Sandry..."

“I’m going to stop you there, Sandry,” Daja said, interrupting their defence practice. She stilled Sandry’s staff-blow with one hand—the non-brass one; she didn’t flinch at the blow. “I don’t think staffs are for you, either.”

            “But what else is left!” Sandy cried, exasperated. She dropped her practice staff and crossed her arms. “I must just be hopeless.”

            “You aren’t hopeless.” Briar plucked up the staff and spun it over his arms, flicking it up into the air and snatching it mid-spin. “You just need to find what’s right and practice.”

            “I’m running out of options,” Sandry complained. “Swords, knives, staffs…what else is there?”

            Tris’ eyes widened at her sudden idea. She turned to Daja and Briar. “Would a bow-and-arrows be in the right vein of thought?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “A bow and arrows?”

“A bow and arrows?” Daja considered as she stared at Sandry, who had not possessed any innate skill with the prior weapons she attempted to wield: sword, knives and staff. Daja’s features broke into a grin, white teeth flashing. “It might be just right.”

            “I can fix one up real quick,” Briar expressed; his features were just as amused and excited as his sister’s.  “You all sit tight a while. I’ll be out in not too long.” He jumped up and headed for his workshop.

            “What do we do now?” Sandry inquired. She was not known for her patience.

            Tris glanced up from the sword she held. “Daja, can you fight a sword with a staff?”

            Daja smiled and gripped her staff tight. “You can. Want to try?”

            Tris held up her sword.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fighting looked so exciting.

“I don’t know as much about swords as staffs,” Daja cautioned as she stepped up beside Tris, “but I picked up on a few things when I was young and curious.”

            “As did we all,” Sandry quipped with an innocent smile. She watched Tris grip a sword and Daja correct it some—minimally, compared to the correcting Sandry had required before she gave it up.

            Daja grinned over her shoulder at Sandry before turning back to Tris. “I can find someone to teach you; I’ve made enough swords that I know who teaches.”

            Tris nodded and held the sword firm in her hand. Daja instructed her to swing and smiled to see it. She stepped back. “For now I just want you to keep that sword in your hand, even when I try to dislodge it. Get a feel for it and hold on. I can only teach basic fighting—killing blows will to wait. Strike.”

            Tris slashed the sword; Daja parried and moved to slide it from the woman’s hand with a quick manoeuvre of the brass staff-end. Tris held on tight.

            “Good, Tris!”

            Sandry watched and sighed, wondering when Briar would return with a bow and arrow for her to try. Fighting looked so _exciting_.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are you ready to try a bow?”

Sandry gasped as an arrow flew by her and lodged in the fence surrounding their back garden. She turned to Briar, hands on her hips. “Are you trying to kill me?”

            “And shorten my time with you?” Briar posed, grinning as he lowered the bow. “Never. It’s a _wooden_ arrow, Sandry: it wasn’t going anywhere near you without my permission.” Briar turned to watch Tris and Daja, Tris fighting with a sword that Daja worked to dislodge with her staff. “They’re going at it.”

            “Yes,” Sandry agreed. “I think they may have forgotten I’m here, so it’s good you arrived.”

            “Are you ready to try a bow?”

            Sandry smiled. “Absolutely! I’ve been waiting patiently.”

            Briar’s eyebrow quirked.

            “Well, not so patiently. But I’ve been waiting!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sandry’s ready to try the bow.”

“Daja, Tris!” Briar called to his siblings. They halted their practice fight—Tris with a sword, Daja with her staff—and turned to him. He gestured to the bow he had created and then to an impatient Sandry. “Sandry’s ready to try the bow.”

            “And you’d like our assistance?” Tris snapped, eyes flaring. She was rad in the face, breathing heavily and leaning on the beginner’s sword; despite that, she looked thoroughly impassioned by fighting with something physical.

            “I thought Daja here could make a target and you could channel the wind away, until Sandry has the hang of a straight shot.”

            “Good thinking,” Daja commented. She reached out for Tris’ hand and grasped it, shaking it firmly. “We can continue later.”

            Tris smiled.

            Sandry held the bow and danced from foot to foot, unable to contain her excitement.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sandry held a wooden bow tight in her hand as Briar guided her in notching the arrow.

Sandry held a wooden bow tight in her hand as Briar guided her in notching the arrow.

            “Aim for Daja’s target and be careful of your firm arm. This is the sort of thing you can pick up by trial and error too; you can almost teach yourself.” He stepped back.

            Sandry felt the air around them cease stirring; Tris had channelled it away from them in a dome, so Sandry could practice without interference. Tris, Daja and Briar watched on as Sandry pulled back the arrow between her fingers.

            “Here goes nothing,” she announced, half expecting immediate failure as she had faced with the other weapons she had attempted to learn. She took aim at the target, took a breath and let go. The arrow shot toward the target and lodged. Not in the red centre or the inner gold-then-green rings, but in the outer blue one.

            “You got Tris!”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sandry stared at Daja’s target across the back garden of the Cheeseman House

Sandry stared at Daja’s target across the back garden of the Cheeseman House. An arrow was lodged in the blue outer ring of the target; the sight was beautiful to Sandry, who had experienced a day of failure in her attempts to wield non-magical weapons.

            “I _did_ it!” she called to her friends. Briar clapped; Daja chuckled; Tris grinned. Sandry hopped around in a circle. “I finally did something right!”

            “And it’ll likely get better from here,” Briar told her with a crooked smile. “Someday, when you’ve learned in full, we can wrap your arrows in cloth to combine it with your magic. You’ll hardly miss a shot.”

            “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Tris cautioned. She laughed when Sandry shot her a look. “Not that you don’t have all the potential in the world.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She’s got some fierce aim.”

Briar sliced at a neck with one knife and threw the other into the opponent approaching him. He jumped over the first body and tackled the second down, removing the knife with one swipe. As he was about to stand, he felt movement to his side and cursed as he realised the striker could skewer him before he could respond. An arrow caught in the striker’s chest. Briar turned over his shoulder and grinned. “Cheers, Sandry.”

            She winked and took aim at an attacker headed after Tris, who was locked in a sword fight with another. Tris saw the first go down in her peripheral and grinned, ruthlessly tearing into her opponent.

            Daja tripped up a fighter with her staff; he had been approaching Sandry. Daja took on a few more before the arena—and its mechanical foe—ceased movement.

            Briar grinned to the man who stepped out from behind the booth. “Thanks, Nat.”

            “No problem. Wife’s still thrilled our garden no longer looks like a jungle.” Nat held out his hand and shook Briar’s. “Least I could do. Same time next week?”

            “Yes,” Tris answered. Her eyes were fierce. Nat sent her a smile.

            “Fighting meditation is _fun_ ,” Sandry announced as she and her family turned toward the arena’s exit. “Did you see me bend that arrow mid-flight?”

            “Yes,” Daja confirmed, grinning as she wrapped an arm over Sandry’s shoulder, “and I _told_ you it would be fun.”

            “Wouldn’t want her on the opposing side,” Briar whispered to Tris as they walked behind the other two. “She’s got some fierce aim.”

            “Not too bad yourself, old man.”

            “Oi!”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! C: Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
